LE CORBUSIER'S PRINCIPLES OF CITY PLANNING AND THElR APPLICATION IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS by AMlT TUNGARE Bachelor of Architecture, University of Pune, lndia Master of Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, lndia A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in the partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Architecture School of Architecture Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, May, 2001 O 2001, Amit Tungare National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 of Cam& du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services senfices bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaON KlAON4 Ottawa ON K1A ûN4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Lîbraly of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, 10- distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. The objective of this thesis is to develop an approach to understanding the concept of 'Virtual City' by drawing information from the disciplines of architecture and city planning. The focus is mainly on exploring the concepts for planning virtual city environments. Based on principles developed by sorne of the eminent thinkers and town planners for real world cities, the thesis attempts to conclude that principles of modern urban planning can possibly form an effective strategy for the organization of information in virtual environments. A comparative analysis of Le Corbusier's planning principles is made in order to develop a metaphorical interpretation as the 'Virtual City Interface'. This is supporteci by some visual concepts developed in due course of the research. The focus of this discussion is to explore the possibilities on enhancing the user experience by creating a real time environment of a city on the screen. Architects and planners play a very important role in understanding and defining the concept of a real place. This discussion embodies and augments thoughts and perceptions into developing a virtual city environment, by establishing a metaphorical connection between the architectural language and virtuality. For this, I have chosen Le Corbusier's Chandigarh, the only realized city out of his many planned cities, as the main exarnple of study. Chandigarh will be studied in detail, followed by an interface that will constitute its planning and design principles as applied to 'Virtual Chandigarh'. III Acknowledgements l At the behest, I would like to thank Professor Greg Andonian, without whorn this thesis would have been an empty notebook. I would like to thank hirn for his tremendous support, guidance and encouragement. Greg gave me al1 the freedom 1 ever wanted to develop the idea of my thesis from the very beginning. His availability at any point of time and his willingness to discuss the topic in long hours has been instrumental in shaping this thesis. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him profusely. Special thanks to Professor Steve Fai, for his help and guidance. His important hints were the key to the development of this thesis. I take this opportunity to thank him as well. Thanks also to Professor Rafael Gomez-Moriana, for his valuable input and clarifications on the ideas and principles of city planning and morphology of the city in general. I take this opportunity to thank Mr. Jayant Pandit, without whose mention this thesis will be incomplete. His generous provision of al1 the peripheral requirements such as computers, printers, internet connection, etc. were the most important criteria in actually working on this thesis document and the prototype. This being a multi-faceted discipline, I have been able to learn a great deal from experts in various fields. Brad Steele's course gave me an insight into using various tools in software. Lois Frankel's course made me familiar with the topics and issues of Hurnan Computer Interaction. Benjamin Gianni's course helped me develop myself as an 'Information Architect'. I would like to thank al1 of them for their valuable guidance. Here I also take the opportunity to thank al1 my friends, especially my closest, Laura Olac, for al1 the inspiration. I would also like to thank Vidya Shankarnarayan, for her encouragement. Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to the Holy Trio I worship and to my parents without whose love, wish and support, I wouldn't have been able to cross the Atlantic to corne to Canada, pursue and complete this Master's Program. I owe everything to them. Amit Tungare April, 2001 1 Table of Contents t . Introduction 2. Structure of Thesis 3. Le Corbusier and his work on Contemporary Cities: A Critical Perspective 3.1 A brief story of Le Corbusier 3.2 Visions on City Planning 3.3 Comparison of the visions of Le Corbusier and other Planners 4. Case studies of Three Cities 4.1 City for Three Million (Hypothetical) 4.2 Brasilia (Influenced) 4.3 Chandigarh (Implemented) 4.3.1 Edict of Chandigarh 4.3.2 Genesis of the City 4.3.3 Earlier Design 4.3.4 Le Corbusier's Plan 4.3.5 The Biological Analogy 4.3.6 Le Corbusier's Definition of use of Chandigarh 4.3.7 The Functions for Chandigarh as defined by Le Corbusier 4.3.8 The Buildings 4.3.9 lndustry 4.3.1 0 The City Centre 4.3.1 1 Housing 4.3.12 Commercial Buildings 4.3.13 Summary of the Chapter 5. Virtual Cities: Concepts and Contexts 63 5.1 Introduction to Virtual World 5.2 A City Planning Perspective 5.3 What are Virtual Cities? 5.3.1 Definition 5.3.2 Three-D Virtual Cities 5.4 Virtual Cities as Metaphors; a way of Interpretation 5.5 Comparisons: Similarities and Dissimilarities in the Real and the Virtual City 5.6 Perceiving the Virtual City 5.7 Essential roles of Architects and Planners as the Creators of the Environment 5.8 Designing the new Environment 5.9 Overview of the Design of Virtual Cities on Two Levels 5.9.1 Macro Level Design 5.9.2 Micro Level Design 6. Case Studies of Virtual Cities currently existent on the lnternet 6.1 Cybertown 6.2 Norstar Mall 7. Findings, Cornparison and Summary of the Case Studies 7.1 Findings from the Case Studies 7.1.1 Le Corbusier's Planning Principles 7.1.2 Positive and Negative aspects of Chandigarh 7.2 Summary of the findings 8. Conceptual Interpretation and Proposal based on Research 8.1 lnterpreting Virtual City in a real context 8.2 Navigation in Complex Virtual Spaces 8.3 Spatial User Interface Metaphors 8.4 The Virtual City: Motivation and Basic Development Concepts 8.5 Why use a City Structure? 8.6 Elements of the City Environment 8.7 Existing City Metaphors 8.8 Description of the Information City Metaphor 8.8.1 Structure 8.8.2 Elements 8.8.3 Containers 8.8.4 Links 8.8.5 Navigation and its Tools 8.8.6 Information Distribution 8.9 Using elements of Chandigarh to superimpose on the Virtual City 8.10 lmplementing an Information City 8.1 1 Using a Graphical Virtual Environment 8.12 Building a City 8.1 3 ConcIusions 8.14 Reflections on the future of Virtual Cities Illustrations Notes Primary Litetature Review Bibliography Appendix I - Various Browser Interfaces Appendix II - CD ROM List of Illustrations 1. City Map of Chandigarh existent today defined by the Municipal Boundaries as referenced from http:/fchandiciarh .n ic.in/frcitv. htm 2. Master Plan for Chandigarh by Albert Mayer RAlC Journal, 1955 (Evenson Norma, Chandigarh, 1966) 3. The 'leaf plan' of Chandigarh by Mathew Nowicki Scherne 1, Evenson Norma, Chandigarh, 1966 4. The 'leaf plan' of Chandigarh by Mathew Nowicki Scheme 2, Evenson Norma. Chandigarh, 1966 5. Plan of Chandigarh frorn Capitol Project Office Drawing Evenson Norrna, Chandigarh, 1966 6. Le Corbusier's study sketches for Chandigarh, Modular II Evenson Norma, Chandigarh, 1966. 7. Le Corbusier's study sketches for Chandigarh, Modular II Evenson Nona, Chandigarh, 1966. 8. Le Corbusier's study sketches for Chandigarh, Modular II Evenson Norma, Chandigarh, 1966. 9. Le Corbusier's study sketches for Chandigarh, Modular II Evenson Norma, Chandigarh, 1966. 10. Sector, Evenson Norma, Chandigarh, 1966. 11. Capitol Complex, Evenson Norma, Chandigarh, 1966. 12. Capitol Complex, Evenson Norma, Chandigarh, 1966. 13. Capitol Cornplex, Evenson Norma, Chandigarh, i 966. 14.The Assembly Evenson Norma, Chandigarh, 1966. 15. Plans of Chandigarh and Brasiiia Compared, Superblock Comparisons from Architectural Forum November 1960. Masterplan Comparisons from Architecture in Australia, Decernber 1959, Evenson Norma, Chandigarh, 1966. 16. Brasilia, Zoning layout plan taken from htt~://www.civila.comlbrasilia/index.html 17.Contemporary City for Three Million, A hypothetical City proposed by Le Corbusier, The City of Tomorrow, 1929 p.172. 18. Contemporary City for Three Million, isometric view of the hypothetical City proposed by Le Corbusier, The City of Tomorrow, 1929 p.171. 19. The 'Voisin' Plan of Paris by Le Corbusier, The City of Tomorrow, 1929, p. 279. 20. Le Corbusier 'Response to Moscow'; the proposed city on the site of Moscow in relationship to the 'Green City' 1930, Foundation Le Corbusier, 20471, Jean- Louis Cohen; Le Corbusier and the Mystique of USSR, p.